The Commonwealth Bank has posted a full-year cash profit of $8.7 billion, a record for an Australian lender.

The result is a 12 per cent increase on last year.

The cash profit is the industry's preferred measure as it normalises profits and excludes one-off items.

The bank's statutory net profit after tax increased 13 per cent to $8.6 billion, also a record.

The CBA declared a final dividend of $2.18 per share, taking the full-year dividend to $4.01 per share, an increase of 10 per cent.

"At the same time as delivering a 12 per cent increase in cash earnings and a strong return on equity, we reinvested $1.2 billion into the business, most of which was targeted at our long-term strategic priorities – people, technology, strength and productivity," CBA chief executive officer Ian Narev said in a statement.

"We are cautiously positive about the outlook for the 2015 financial year.

"Whilst business and consumer confidence levels have remained fragile, the levels of underlying activity confirm the strong foundations of the Australian economy.

"Lower interest rates have been positive for the housing and construction sectors, where increased activity has gone some way to offset the impacts of the anticipated reduction in investment in the resources sector."

The result was in line with the market’s expectations and was driven by growth in both mortgage and business lending with net interest income up 8 per cent to $15 billion.

Home lending grew by 7 per cent year on year with home loans balances increasing $13 billion to $400 billion, up 3 per cent on the prior half.

Business lending grew 5 per cent with the corporate loan book growing by $3 billion to $184 billion.

The bank also managed to edge up its net interest margin on the loans by one basis point to 2.14 per cent.

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